Arrington Magny

Arrington Magny was born and raised in Mississippi, and is a contemporary abstract artist. The materials Magny uses range from charcoals, pastels and paints to plaster, mud and tar on paper, canvas and wood. The physical layers of these materials form a manipulated surface. Through Arrington's singular method of excavation, the image beneath is unearthed.

Says Arrington, "the best word I have found to describe what I paint, how I paint, why I paint - is instinct. I often come to a blank canvas with no idea where the painting will take me, where it will go. I begin each painting with a layer of plaster, which I apply with a palette knife, make markings, scribblings, etc. and allow to set. This step is the recursive initiation between artist and artwork; akin to that first word on a blank page. The next several layers are a sort of brainstorming, a sketching out of ideas, thoughts, cognitive wanderings. I scribble prayers and lines of poetry, sketch images more closely resembling rudimentary cave paintings or a child's imaginative drawings than articulate renderings. As the layers progress, the process of deconstruction and reconstruction continues, while shapes and forms begin to appear (and disappear).

In both the process and content of my art, I am interested in the layering not only of physical materials, but of time, space and memory, of painting and drawing, and of multifarious associations and meanings. The content of my work is frequently ambiguous. It is a quest for beauty, a search for meaning, for connections between everything; each painting is a visual record of these inquisitions. For the viewer, I aspire to create an alternative resting place for your gaze; one that is a contrast to, or perhaps a repose from, the often exhausting world in which we exist, which can be so fast and so loud, lacking tenderness and shame, filled with violence, oppression, exploitation, vanity and displacement."

Magny and her husband currently split their time between Key Biscayne, Florida and Paris, France.